Roman Surgical Instruments

[rekirts]

This site is not for the faint of heart.<br>
<br>
hsc.virginia.edu/hs-libra...nstru.html<br>
<br>
Wendy <p></p><i></i>

[richsc]

I am always amazed at the level of medical sophistication; someone said modern medicine didn't reach comparability until the late 19th century. Certainly the Civil War surgical instruments were no better.<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

That's an impressive array of equipment.<br>
Yet despite the level of medical sophistication, without the understanding about bacteria, I wonder if it was often a case of 'if the disease didn't kill you the doctor would'? Some of those procedures described are quite invasive.<br>
I know that in the C19th when Dr. Semmelweiss first came up with the idea of handwashing, many women who could have survived childbirth died of puerperal fever caused by doctors moving from patient to patient without washing their hands in between. Often they came straight from dissecting corpses, just wiping their hands down their coats before examining the women!<br>
<br>
Jackie.<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Dug this bit up on ancient medical knowledge. I seem to remember there was a thread a long while back on RAT with some discussion about what have been used as pain relief. Here are a couple of interesting possibilities:<br>
<br>
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2...7826.shtml<br>
<br>
Although opium apparently was widely used for medicinal purposes and Pliny was aware of the dangers of an overdose, I have seen no reference to awareness of it's addictive properties. It seems possible there were many drug addicts in ancient Rome!<br>
<br>
Also found this arcticle on the use of prosthetics:<br>
<br>
www.amputeeresource.org/H...etics.html<br>
<br>
It's interesting to note that Pliny in his 'Natural History' wrote of a certain Marcus Sergius a legate in the Second Punic War, who on losing his hand had an iron one fashioned enabling him to hold his shield and thus return to the battle.<br>
<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[rekirts]

Thanks for those links, Jackie. I couldn't connect to the second one, but I printed a copy of the first one for future reference.<br>
<br>
Wendy <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

I don't know what happened to that link but I didn't type all those dots!<br>
Maybe try this one instead:<br>
www.nupoc.northwestern.ed...tory.shtml<br>
<br>
Jackie.<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Gashford]

Hello folks,<br>
<br>
I know the the ladies and men of LEG II AVG have got quite an array of this equipment in their displays and have had modern surgeons stop and remark at how similar many of the ancient tools are in comparison to the shape of modern ones, all that has often changed is the material used to make them from.<br>
<br>
Below are a few images, the first two from part of the display by Domina, the civilian section of LEG II AVG and the second image is from the military medicus of LEG II AVG.<br>
<br>
Hope this helps.<br>
<br>
<img src="http://www.legiiavg.org.uk/images/medical_equipment.jpg" style="border:0;"/><br>
<br>
<img src="http://www.legiiavg.org.uk/images/medical2.jpg" style="border:0;"/><br>
<br>
<img src="http://www.legiiavg.org.uk/images/medical1.jpg" style="border:0;"/><br>
<br>
<p>Graham Ashford
<hr />
[url=http://www.ludus.org.uk" target="_new]Ludus Gladiatorius[/url]<br>
[url=http://pub156.ezboard.com/bromancombatsports" target="_new]Roman Combat Sports Forum[/url]<br>
[url=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk" target="_new]Roman Army Talk Forum[/url]<br>
[url=http://pub27.ezboard.com/bromancivtalk" target="_new]Roman Civilian Talk Forum[/url]<br>
</p><i></i>

[richsc]

What a marvelous display! It begs the question of who made them ? <p></p><i></i>

[JRSCline]

Holy cow, you are not getting anywhere near me with those!<br>
<br>
Then again, this probably looked like "state of the art" to a person of the ancient world, and any cure feels better than no cure at all.<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
Jenny <p></p><i></i>